'Haven't heard anything'

Displaced Syrian civilians gather at a government-run shelter after they were evacuated by the army from areas in the Eastern Ghouta region recently recaptured from rebels by government forces, on March 12, 2018 on outskirts of Damascus

(AFP)

The 82 rooms have been set up on a covered sports pitch, divided by wooden panels, and those living there have access to shared bathrooms.

A rope tied around two trees serves as a makeshift washing line.

Ruwayda Abdelraheem, 45, said she had been unable to see her daughter or baby grandchild, who was born in the enclave's main town of Douma on the same day that the military bombardment of Eastern Ghouta began.

"I'm so happy to be out but I'm also sad because I can't get in touch with my daughter who gave birth," she said, as she wiped tears from her pale cheeks.

"I haven't heard anything from her."

Eastern Ghouta's estimated 400,000 inhabitants have lived under government siege since 2013, and have come under intense air strikes since February 18.

That was followed by a ground offensive that has taken back more than half the opposition stronghold and cut what remains of it in three separate parts.

A Britain-based monitor says that some 1,170 civilians have been killed by the three-week onslaught on the rebel enclave.

'It was agonising'

In the shelter, Maysa Uyun, 32, prayed for the "release" of her mother and sister from areas in Eastern Ghouta still under rebel control.

"I pray God keeps them safe," she said, her eyes lifted to the skies.

Arafat Farhat, a man in his 40s, fled his home in another part of Ghouta to Misraba, before being ferried out.

"My children would come to me and say 'Daddy, we don't want to die' here," he said.

"It was agonising. I wished I could give my life for them. I can't believe we're still alive."